| It's official: SD-1 candidate Regina Calcaterra has dropped out of the race following the appellate court upholding a lower court ruling that says she doesn't meet residency requirements for the State Senate.
I wish I could say this surprises me, but it doesn't. The argument Calcaterra's lawyers chose, to try and prove that she hadn't given up residency, was a tough one given that she had surrendered her New York driver's license and bought a house in PA. The fact remains that the court's assumption of a continuous residency requirement doesn't mesh with a plaintext reading of the state constitution, but that approach was apparently judged not politically viable by Calcaterra's lawyers.
Calcaterra is encouraging the Democratic and Working Families parties which had endorsed her to now support Calcaterra friend Jennifer Maertz for the seat, but it's hard to see how after this we have any realistic chance of starting over with a new candidate in the just over ten weeks until the election. Calcaterra's campaign was a major challenge that got clotheslined--you can't rebuild that very easily.
Of particular interest will be the question of Calcaterra's campaign warchest. While I'm sure she'll try to give all she can to her would-be successor, it seems to me that state campaign finance laws would prevent her from giving more than the legal limit for an individual contribution, which is $9500 to $15,500. As of the 32 day pre-primary report less than two weeks ago, Calcaterra had almost $139,000 on hand. If she chose to roll that money over into other candidates, it could shake up the landscape. |
